Some useful software
- deal.ii: http://www.dealii.org/; download: http://www.dealii.org/developer/readme.html to generate finite element codes.
- GNU Parallel: http://www.gnu.org/software/parallel/ to simulate multiple jobs in parallel.
Latex (link)
Image
- Batch image processors are useful for batch operation on many files. Some of their functionalities are: resizing, cropping, conversion, rotating,and renaming. They are particularly useful for adjusting the frames we obtain from our visualizers and for formatting images for websites. A list of useful Batch image processors can be found here. In particular, the following two programs are highly recommended:
- Drawing simple images: Without discussing very advanced tools for this purpose, Adobe Illustrator, xfig, inkscape, pixlr are some of the basic tools we use:
- Inkscape (http://inkscape.org/en/): As discussed in detail in Latex page it is an ideal tool for inserting Latex formulations in figures.
- Pixlr (http://pixlr.com/) An online tool for drawing and combining already existing figures.
- Color Blender (http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/color-blend/): A useful tool to obtain color codes for a combination of several colors.
Video
- Recording video from laptop: litecam (http://www.litecam.net/en/product/litecam-hd/) is a very powerful free software for this purpose.
- Animation from still images:
- Quitcktime Pro (http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/): To make a movie choose File -> Open Image Sequence and choose frame rate.
- Movie Convertor:
- Any Video Converter Ultimate (http://www.any-video-converter.com/edit-and-clip-video.php) is a very powerful tool to convert movies to a variety of formats. The maximum movie length for the free version is 3 minutes which generally is not of concern.
- Pavtube Free Video DVD Converter Ultimate (http://www.multipelife.com/free-video-dvd-converter-ultimate) has many more options for editing and cropping the movie than Any Video Converter Ultimate and does not have 3 minute limitation in the free version, but supports fewer movie formats and generates files of about twice the size.
- Free Video Converter (http://www.freemake.com/free_video_converter/) another very powerful movie converter.
- Adobe flash movie tools: Since flash movies can be inserted into pdf files especial attention is paid to programs for this purpose.
- Converters to Flash swf: Both Any Video Converter Ultimate and Free Video Converter can convert movies to swf format. The former has in general provided better quality movies with smaller file sizes for our movies.
- Player: VLC media player (http://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html)
- Youtube embedded code: There are several options for the embedded code from ebay (size, turn on and off suggested movies, frame, automatic play, etc.). Some resources are:
- Documentation, help pages, and videos such as https://developers.google.com/youtube/player_parameters, http://illuminea.com/remove-related-videos-from-end-of-embedded-youtube-video/, auto play and loop video, Fix Aspect Ratio on already uploaded videos, removing Black Borders on videos without Reuploading.
- Vtubetools (http://www.vtubetools.com/) can be a good source for this purpose.
- Several examples can of video embedded code can be found here (private).
- Readers and Editors:
- Adobe Acrobat Pro provides many useful functionalities. The following options on the other hand provide some of the options for free. Several plug-ins can be installed for Acrobat pro. In particular the following two can be very helpful:
- Split, Merge, & Rename PDF files (https://www.evermap.com/autosplit.asp) is a very flexible tool to split, merge pdf files and insert pages into files.
- AutoInk (https://www.evermap.com/autoink.asp) is a good tool to write on pdf files. Without this tool it is difficult to write on pdf files on a tablet.
- NitroReader 3 (http://www.nitropdf.com/pdf-reader)
- CutePDF Editor (http://www.cutepdf-editor.com/): Combining and splitting pdf files; rotate, delete, insert, crop, and insert (blank) pages.
- Adobe Acrobat Pro provides many useful functionalities. The following options on the other hand provide some of the options for free. Several plug-ins can be installed for Acrobat pro. In particular the following two can be very helpful:
Note taking
Two very good note taking programs are: